Fess Parker, 85; portrayed frontiersman Davy Crockett
LOS ANGELES - Fess Parker, 85, an actor who became nearly every baby boomer's idol in the 1950s and launched a craze for coonskin caps as television's Davy Crockett, died yesterday at his home in California's Santa Ynez Valley.
LOS ANGELES - Fess Parker, 85, an actor who became nearly every baby boomer's idol in the 1950s and launched a craze for coonskin caps as television's Davy Crockett, died yesterday at his home in California's Santa Ynez Valley.
Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said that Mr. Parker, who was also TV's Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.
"She's a wreck," Anash said, adding that Mr. Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.
The first installment of Davy Crockett, with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the Disneyland TV show.
The 6-foot-6 Mr. Parker was quickly embraced by youngsters as the man in a coonskin cap who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. Boomers gripped by the Crockett craze scooped up Davy lunch boxes, toy Old Betsy rifles, buckskin shirts, and trademark fur caps. "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ("Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee . . .") was a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes while Mr. Parker's own version reached No. 5.
The first three television episodes were turned into a theatrical film, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, in 1955.
True to history, Disney killed off its hero in the third episode, "Davy Crockett at the Alamo," where the real-life Crockett died in 1836 at age 49. But spurred by popular demand, Disney brought back the Crockett character for some episodes in the 1955-56 season, including "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race." In reporting this development, Hedda Hopper wrote: "Take off those black armbands, kids, and put on your coonskin caps, for Davy Crockett will hit the trail again."
But just as suddenly as it had taken the country by storm, the craze died down.
Mr. Parker's career then leveled off before he made a TV comeback from 1964-1970 in the title role of the TV adventure series Daniel Boone - also based on a real-life American frontiersman. Actor-singer Ed Ames, formerly of the Ames Brothers, played Boone's Indian friend, Mingo.
After Daniel Boone, Mr. Parker largely retired from show business, except for guest appearances, and went into real estate.
"Who needed a guy running around in a coonskin cap?" he said.
Mr. Parker had made his motion picture debut in Springfield Rifle in 1952. His other movies included No Room for the Groom (1952), The Kid From Left Field (1953), Them! (1954), The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), Westward Ho, the Wagons! (1956), Old Yeller (1957), and The Light in the Forest (1958).
After departing Hollywood, Mr. Parker got into real estate with his wife.
He bought and sold property, built hotels (including the elegant Fess Parker's Wine Country Inn & Spa in Los Olivos and Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort Santa Barbara) and grew wine grapes on a 2,200-acre vineyard on California's Central Coast, where he was dubbed King of the Wine Frontier and coonskin caps enjoyed brisk sales.